Cooking on Maternity Leave...

I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed being home with Jackson the past 6 weeks! And I now know the answer to “But what am I going to do with all my time, just sitting around the house all day?” and “Why do people with babies talk about how much laundry there is? A baby can’t need that many clothes!” Ha! I laugh at my pre-baby naiveté! With that said, I think it is time for me to go back to work! I don't say this because I'm tired of diapers and laundry. I say this because I have done an extreme amount of cooking in the past week. This is not so good when I am trying to start working on taking off this baby weight! And, not surprisingly, for those of you who know me, I have been attacking Paula Deen’s new cookbook, The Southern Cooking Bible. I do love me some Paula Deen. But the amount of butter I went through this past week was slightly obscene! Here’s a peek at what I made: Red Wine and Beef Stew page 128 Buttery Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes page 248 The Lady and Sons Hoecakes page 297 Why did I choose this? I don’t drink red wine and I hate stew! But I have to say it was super delicious! And the Hoecakes were good, but not nearly as good as the ones Paula serves in her restaurant!

General Robert E Lee Cake page 386 I made my own lemon curd for the filling in this one, which was delicious! But I remembered a lesson I learned when we were picking out wedding cakes- I HATE buttercream frosting! This cake- when curd, cake and frosting are accounted for- took 7 ½ sticks of butter!!! I threw out what was left, which was most of it, once I counted that up!

Sausage Biscuits page 278 Cause, really, who wouldn’t like biscuits with sausage in them? Andrew, in particular, is a huge fan of all pork products!

Florida Lemon Bars page 352 Pecan and Cream Cheese Stuffed Dates page 7 I made these for a Mommy and Me picnic that I went to. I’m really lucky that I have found a great group of moms to spend time with- they do lots of fun things and its great for Jackson to be around the other babies! The moms all really liked the dates!

Gooey Butter Cake page 354 Absolutely delicious, and definitely gooey!

Taco Salad page 46 I got excited about this one- I do love spicy foods, but it turns out it was just a list of all the things you would normally put together for a taco salad…

Hot Chili and Cheese Dip page 10 Cause who doesn’t love sharing a bowl of dip for lunch while watching a movie?

Old Fashioned White Bread page 281 Making anything with yeast scares me, but this bread was pretty good. A little dense, but homemade bread usually is. I needed some bread to put my jams on. That’s right, I’ve started canning jams and jellies, but that is another blog post for another day…

Here's the recipe for those stuffed dates that were so popular: 3 Tbsp cream cheese, at room temperature 3 Tbsp finely chopped pecans 1/4 tsp black pepper 12 Medjool dates 4 slices bacon, cut into thirds Preheat oven to 400. Stir together cream cheese, pecans and pepper. Stuff into dates (be sure to take pit out). Wrap a piece of bacon around each date and secre with a toothpick. Place on a foil lined cooke sheet, bake for 8 minutes, flip and bake 4-8 mintes more, until bacon is crisp. Serve while hot.